One-pagers
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Workshopping
Earlier today I gave a workshop on the ins and outs of a startup’s ‘one-pager’. As well as a deck startups need to put together a one-page summary of their company. There’ll likely be many different versions of the one-pager for different audiences — potential investors, customers, partners, recruits. It’s not easy and founders have to put the work in.
What I shared with the group of founders might also be useful if you’re considering angel investing — do the founders you’re meeting have a good one-pager? Can they articulate what they do and for whom? After reading it are you confused? If this is their best work is that good enough?
For context I told the group…
I’m an Angel Investor, so I’ve put some of my own money into early stage startups.
I occasionally syndicate the startups I invest in to others — that’s a group of 80+ other angel investors who are keen to invest along side me.
I’m a Fund Manager having raised two funds in 2016 — both are fully invested and one has had two exits.
So for me that’s 23 startup investments (5 have failed, 2 have exited).
All in all I’ve been closely part of investing over £80m into startups since 2011.
In 2011 I co-founded of 9others, which is now a global network of 5,000+ founders in 45+ cities around the world.
Before all that I studied Computer Science at Durham University, have an MBA from Imperial College and worked FinTech for RBS, The Bank of New York and others.
I told them to include…
Simple language. To write like they speak (providing they speak well of course).
Say what the company does in normal language — a ‘1, 2, 3’ of, “We do this, this, then that'“ is helpful.
Keep it ‘on-brand’ — if your company is quirky and fun keep the one-pager that way. If it all goes well you’ll have to work with these people so show them what you’ll be like.
Say what you want — you’d be amazed how many one-pagers, decks, emails and LinkedIn messages I get where I read it and think — that’s nice, but what do they want?
Think from the reader’s perspective — what’s in it for them? Don’t just state things, tell the reader how they’ll benefit.
Whenever you add a sentence ask yourself, “Yeah, but so what?”.
Use portrait layout (it’ll be read on a phone).
Logos are good, with context — are those logos from customers, investors, partners?
Timelines and pictures can be good if they’re simple and the reader knows where to start. Often there are circular diagrams showing ‘the flywheel’, but I don’t know where to start from.
Remember your objective. What one thing do you want? Do you want to get a meeting? Is it to have a call? Or just a reply? Maybe it’s simply that you want the reader to click a link and see more. Make it easy for the reader.
I told them to exclude…
Lies. Do not lie about numbers, customers, investors or anything else (good investors will do checks).
TMI – you don’t have to explain every last detail of what your company does. Remember the objective should be to get the reader to do just one thing. Then you can build a relationship, some rapport, and you’ll get the change to explain much more.
Don’t use videos or anything too flashy — keep it simple. You can get to videos later once you’ve got a conversation going, but there’s just too much risk of things not working or links being broken.
Check spellling and grmamar?
Some helpful resources
Seth Godin: “Far more useful to say, ‘we sell a good cup of coffee at a fair price,’ and see if you can pull that off first…. We need a goal. But the more specific and measurable, the better.”
The Greatest Sales Deck Ever: “Don’t kick off a sales presentation by talking about your product, your headquarters locations, your investors, your clients, or anything about yourself.”
‘Influence’ by Robert B. Cialdini.
Important: None of these posts are investment advice. If you are thinking about investing you should seek the advice of a suitably qualified independent advisor.
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